The Truman Show Essay Example for Free

The Truman Show Essay The Truman Show is a film directed by Peter Weir. It is all about how the public spend too much of their time watching television and how we also like the idea of voyeurism. The film has two main characters Christof and Truman Burbank, the latter being the star of the show, which charters Trumans life, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, all year round. Christof has been filming Truman ever since conception. Truman doesnt know this, and in fact he knows nothing about his real family. Everything around him has been scripted and he is on a film set all the time. He is like Christofs pet, he controls everything Truman does. He controls whom Truman meets and talks to e. g. when Truman sees his father again in the streets and from out of nowhere some people come and take him away, preventing Truman from talking to him. Even the weather is controlled in the Truman Show when Truman attempts to leave the island a storm conveniently starts and only affects his boat and not the island, but when he reaches the end of the shows set the storm comes to a sudden end. The set in question is the second only manmade structure completely visible from space. He chose to pick Truman instead of the other babies in the ward, purely on the basis that Truman was born on the day of the shows launch. This was the first time in history that a television corporation has been able to adopt a baby. Because of this fact the viewers who have watched the programme since then in a way regard Truman as a surrogate child, they eagerly follow his every move. The affection the audience feel for Truman has helped the show to attract billions of viewers worldwide. This is kind of a similar affection as to that of the affection the viewers of the 7 Up television series felt towards the children who starred in the series. This programmes is a good comparison to make to The Truman Show because we follow a group of random seven year olds and every few years we return to the same group and see how they have changed in the way they think and feel, a fly on the wall programme if you will. Also The Truman Show is like a soap opera were we are familiar with all the characters but are also the cliff hangers at end of each programme are interlinked in to the next programme and help to keep the continuous flow of the series. Due to the fact that the show does not sleep. Also we finish this hybrid of modern television with an element of reality T.V. For example the Big Brother series, a show where a group of television producers headhunt the nation for an elite group of contestants to compete for a cash prize. The contestants normally consist of a funny person, a beautiful person, a homosexual, someone of different race to the rest of the group and someone who they know will act as a catalyst in the whole situation, some to upset all the other characters. There is also a connection to The Truman Show because there are multiple camera angles to let the viewer see the contestants every move. Its other appeal is that the environment is that of the classic 1950s America, Everyone knows everyone, everyone likes everyone. Everything about this small fictional town of Seahaven, a small picturesque island an island so perfect that no one has yet found reason to leave. This town is perfect for multiple reasons it could be perfect due to the perfectly manicured lawns, the white clapperboard houses or the picket fences. There is the classic old style grocery store on the corner with its brown paper bag and every worker from the shop assistant to the newspaper retailer quite often gives the American trademark phrase of Have a nice day! Which, quite honestly everyday is perfect in the sense of weather anyway. The parks and public space in this town are also super clean, there is always someone cleaning up these public areas, especially when Truman is around, all the cleaners all have earpieces on, the audience know they have earpieces to keep in contact with the shows headquarters so they can make sure Truman is still following routine, but Truman may believe they are deaf or something. But if this was 1950s America there should be no black Americans socialising with the whites due to integration. This is a sign to the audience that there are modern aspects to this classic 1950s seaside town. The Truman Show has some amazing technology going on, with over 5000 cameras constantly beaming out to the world. These cameras have multiple angles, which allow them to follow Trumans every single move, the camera loves him. These cameras are able to follow his every move thanks to the multiple places were they are hidden. They are hidden for example in the bathroom cabinet when we see him grooming himself every morning, in his mums necklace she moves it to show us what Trumans up to on several occasions, in the cars dashboard we see Truman every morning driving to work, in the bin at work we see him piecing together his first love Lauren Garlands face back together as a collage of articles from beauty magazines for the wife, also last of all we see the cameras in his boat in the mast and boats main cabin watching Christofs attempted assassination on Truman when he tries to sail away to from the island. The camera also seems to cut frequently to the shows viewers, for example, the man who always seems to be in the bath watching The Truman Show, the old ladies with their Truman show cushions and blankets who have to reassure each other that Truman is going to be OK when sailing away to freedom, the security guards eagerly watching the show in anticipation of the first televised conception. There is even a mother who leaves her baby crying in the back room just so she doesnt miss out on any of the programmes. Also, the Truman Show cut to various Truman Show bars around the world, bars that are covered in Truman memorabilia and were Truman Show fans can socialise with other Truman Show fans. These people appear to spend all their time watching the Truman Show, there is a certain sense of privileged voyeurism. They can watch other peoples lives on television without having their lives watched and interfered with, they also may be a little nosey and like to know all about other peoples lives. But with all this technology and overheads you may wonder how the Truman Show manages to cover their finances the answer to this question is answered throughout the film. At the start of the film the director informs us that the show generates the Gross.